DOCSLIB.ORG

High School Lesson Plan the Fourteenth Amendment: Definitions of Equality

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
High School Lesson Plan the Fourteenth Amendment: Definitions of Equality HIGH SCHOOL LESSON PLAN THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT: DEFINITIONS OF EQUALITY In this three-part lesson, students will learn about the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by analyzing the majority and dissenting Supreme Court opinions in Plessy v. Ferguson. While working in small groups, students will review the Court’s opinion in Plessy and Justice Harlan’s dissent. Discussion questions will encourage students to think about the purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment when it was drafted, the different ways the law can ensure “equality,” and how the Supreme Court has interpreted the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment over time. Materials (linked online) • Fourteenth Amendment Handout • Plessy Majority Handout All handouts and a facilitator answer key for handouts can be found at lawday.org • Plessy Dissent Handout • Facilitator Answer Key Part 1: Looking at the Fourteenth Amendment 1. Ask students to share what they currently know about 3. Distribute the Fourteenth Amendment handout to the Fourteenth Amendment. Why was it created? What students: This includes text of Section 1 of the amendment. was going on in the country in 1868? 4. Give students a few moments to complete the Note: Students should be familiar with Section 1 of the handout and then ask students to share the clauses Fourteenth Amendment before beginning this lesson. that they identified. Inform students that while Section Depending on the class’s former knowledge, you may want to 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment includes many important emphasize that unlike the Bill of Rights, which were written concepts including the privileges or immunities, citizenship, to protect individuals from the federal government, the due process, and equal protection clauses. The Supreme Fourteenth Amendment was written to protect individuals Court cases that they will examine next focuses on the equal against actions of state governments in the aftermath of the protection clause and how it has been interpreted by the Civil War. Court. 2. Background on Fourteenth Amendment: The Fourteenth Amendment was written, along with the other Reconstruction Amendments, to provide legal and political rights to former slaves and freedmen in the aftermath of the Civil War. The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865, the Fourteenth was ratified in 1868, and the Fifteenth was ratified in 1870. 27 Part 2: Plessy v. Ferguson Part 3: Addressing Inequality 1. Introduce students to the case: 1. Display the following excerpt from the majority in Obergefell While the Fourteenth Amendment stated that all individuals v. Hodges (2015), written by Justice Kennedy. must be guaranteed equal protection of the law, racial segregation remained custom in many areas throughout the The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our country. Passage by Congress of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, own times. The generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of which barred racial discrimination in public accommodations, Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment did not presume to provides evidence of the continued presence of segregation. know the extent of freedom in all of its dimensions, and so they entrusted to further generations a charter protecting the The law lasted until 1883, when the Supreme Court of right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning... the United States declared the statute unconstitutional for in interpreting the Equal Protection Clause, the Court has regulating what the justices considered private companies, recognized that new insights and societal understandings can such as streetcars and entertainment facilities. The Supreme reveal unjustified inequality within our most fundamental Court’s 1883 ruling in the Civil Rights cases spurred states institutions that once passed unnoticed and unchallenged... to enact segregation laws. Between 1887 and 1892, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Maryland, 2. Ask students to reflect on this quote and to think back on the North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia refused origins of the Fourteenth Amendment. What specific injustice equal access to African Americans on public accommodations was the Fourteenth Amendment written to address? and transportation. These laws forced blacks to sit in the back of the bus, on separate cars in trains, and in the balcony at 3. Ask students if they believe there are still unjust inequalities in theaters, for example. our country today? What are they? Should they be addressed through legislation, the courts, or in other ways? 2. Organize students into small groups: Distribute the two versions of the Plessy v. Ferguson case study. 4. Distribute stick-it notes to students and ask them to write Half of the groups will examine the majority opinion and the down an unjustified inequality that is currently not protected other half will concentrate on the dissent. Each group will by federal law. work together to answer a set of questions about the case. 5. Project a timeline across a classroom wall that is marked by 3. Reassemble the whole class: increments of ten years. Ask each group to report on various aspects of the case, the majority, and dissenting opinions. After students have 6. Ask students to place their stick-it notes along the timeline reviewed both the majority and dissenting opinions, they based on when they think the issue will be addressed either should discuss the following three questions: through the Court or through the legislature. Discuss the 1. Both the majority opinion and the dissent stated that the completed timeline as a class. What are the similarities or Fourteenth Amendment intended to establish absolute equal- surprises? ity for the races before law. How did justices in the majority and the justice in the minority interpret equal protection PLAN LESSON SCHOOL HIGH under the law, in relation to segregation, differently? The majority ruled that the law can only provide civil and political equality under the law and it cannot and should not try to change the social structure between the two races. Justice Harlan, in comparison, wrote that any legally sanctioned segregation or discrimination based on race has no place in the United States. Segregation perpetuates the idea of one race being inferior or unequal to the other. 2. What might have changed in the United States if Harlan’s reasoning represented the majority opinion of the justices? Segregation sanctioned under law would not have had such a vast reach into so many areas of society. 3. What does this case show about the Court as a decision- making institution and its impact on American life? The Great Dissenter: Justice John Marshall Harlan 28 Fourteenth Amendment Handout Read Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment shown below. Identify the main ideas or clauses of the Amendment. What does the Amendment prohibit states from doing? Amendment XIV Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Dissent Group Handout Facts: On June 7, 1892, 30-year-old Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the “White” car of the East Louisiana Railroad. He was a Creole of Color, a term used to refer to black persons in New Orleans who traced some of their ancestors to the French, Spanish, and Caribbean settlers of Louisiana before it became part of the United States. Plessy could easily pass for white but under Louisiana law, he was considered black despite his light complexion and therefore required to sit in the “Colored” car. When Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, legally segregating common carriers in 1892, a black civil rights organization decided to challenge the law in the courts. Plessy deliberately sat in the white section and identified himself as black. Plessy was arrested. His lawyer argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. District Court Judge John H. Ferguson dismissed the contention that the Act was unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s ruling; the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Questions before the U.S. Supreme Court: Is Louisiana’s law mandating racial segregation on its trains an unconstitutional infringement on both the privileges and immunities and the equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment? Court Ruling: In a 7-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that equal but separate accommodations for whites and blacks imposed by Louisiana do not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Writing for the majority, Justice Brown conceded that the Fourteenth Amendment intended to establish absolute equality for the races before the law, . but, in the in the nature of things, it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either. Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation in places where they are liable to be brought into contact do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other. Significance: The Plessy decision set the precedent that “separate” facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were “equal.” The majority opinion did not contain the phrase “separate but equal” but this doctrine gave constitutional sanction to laws designed to achieve racial segregation which was quickly extended to cover many areas of public life, such as restaurants, theatres, restrooms, and public schools. Excerpts from Justice Harlan’s Dissent in Plessy v.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Than Segregation, Racial Identity: the Neglected Question in Plessy V
    Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice Volume 10 | Issue 1 Article 3 Spring 4-1-2004 MORE THAN SEGREGATION, RACIAL IDENTITY: THE NEGLECTED QUESTION IN PLESSY V. FERGUSON Thomas J. Davis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, and the Legal History Commons Recommended Citation Thomas J. Davis, MORE THAN SEGREGATION, RACIAL IDENTITY: THE NEGLECTED QUESTION IN PLESSY V. FERGUSON, 10 Wash. & Lee Race & Ethnic Anc. L. J. 1 (2004). Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol10/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice at Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice by an authorized editor of Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MORE THAN SEGREGATION, RACIAL IDENTITY: THE NEGLECTED QUESTION IN PLESSY V. FERGUSON Thomas J. Davis* I. INTRODUCTION The U.S. Supreme Court's 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson' has long stood as an ignominious marker in U.S. law, symbolizing the nation's highest legal sanction for the physical separation by race of persons in the United States. In ruling against thirty-four-year-old New Orleans shoemaker Homer Adolph Plessy's challenge to Louisiana's Separate Railway Act of 1890,2 the Court majority declared that we think the enforced separation of the races, as applied to the internal commerce of the state, neither abridges the privileges or immunities of the colored man, deprives him of his property without due process of law, nor denies him the equal protection of the laws, within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.3 One commentator on the Court's treatment of African-American civil rights cast the Plessy decision as "the climactic Supreme Court pronouncement on segregated institutions."4 Historian C.
    [Show full text]
  • From Street Law Inc. and Supreme Court Historical Society on Plessy V
    From Street Law Inc. and Supreme Court Historical Society on Plessy v. Ferguson Background In 1890, Louisiana passed a statute called the Separate Car Act, which stated "that all railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this state, shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white, and colored races, by providing two or more passenger coaches for each passenger train, or by dividing the passenger coaches by a partition so as to secure separate accommodations. " The penalty for sitting in the wrong compartment was a fine of $25 or 20 days in jail. The Plessy case was carefully orchestrated by both the Citizens' Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Act, a group of blacks who raised $3000 to challenge the Act, and the East Louisiana Railroad Company, which sought to terminate the Act largely for monetary reasons. They chose a 30-year- old shoemaker named Homer Plessy, a citizen of the United States who was one-eighth black and a resident of the state of Louisiana. On June 7, 1892, Plessy purchased a first-class passage from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana and sat in the railroad car designated for whites only. The railroad officials, following through on the arrangement, arrested Plessy and charged him with violating the Separate Car Act. Well known advocate for black rights Albion Tourgee, a white lawyer, agreed to argue the case without compensation. In the criminal district court for the parish of Orleans, Plessy argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Orleans Free People of Color and the Process of Americanization, 1803-1896
    W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2005 The New Orleans Free People of Color and the Process of Americanization, 1803-1896 Camille Kempf Gourdet College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, African History Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Gourdet, Camille Kempf, "The New Orleans Free People of Color and the Process of Americanization, 1803-1896" (2005). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539626484. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-wf20-pk69 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE NEW ORLEANS FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR AND THE PROCESS OF AMERICANIZATION, 1803-1896 A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Anthropology The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Camille K. Gourdet 2005 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Camille Kempf feourdet Approved by the Committee, May 2005 sor, Chair kii HhtC'QuL. $you2, Kathleen Bragdon, Professor UX-— M. Lynn Weiss, Professor ii To my husband Nico, who has always stood firmly by my side. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements vi Abstract vii Chapter I.
    [Show full text]
  • We As Freemen Plessy V
    we02efm_PB ed-2015.qxp 6/4/2015 11:54 AM Page 1 we02efm_PB ed-2015.qxp 6/4/2015 11:54 AM Page 2 We as Freemen Plessy v. Ferguson By Keith Weldon Medley In 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson, Louisiana’s famous Supreme Court case, established the separate-but-equal doctrine that pre- vailed in America until the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Homer Plessy’s arrest in a New Orleans railway car was not mere happenstance, but the result of a carefully choreographed campaign of civil disobedience planned by the Comité des Citoyens. This group of Republican free men of color had watched their rights disappear under the increasingly strict Jim Crow laws of the post-Reconstruction period. To contest these new restrictions, they arranged for Plessy, who could “pass” for white, to illegally seat himself in a whites-only carriage. Keith Weldon Medley brings to life the players in this landmark trial, from the crusading black columnist Rodolphe Des- dunes and the other members of the Comité des Citoyens to Albion W. Tourgee, the outspoken writer who repre- sented Plessy, to John Ferguson, a reformist carpetbagger who nonetheless found Plessy guilty. The U.S. Supreme Court sustained the finding, with only John Marshall Harlan, a Southern associ- ate justice, voting against the decision. we02efm_PB ed-2015.qxp 6/4/2015 11:54 AM Page 3 We as Freemen we02efm_PB ed-2015.qxp 6/4/2015 11:54 AM Page 4 we02efm_PB ed-2015.qxp 6/4/2015 11:54 AM Page 5 We as reemen FPlessy v.
    [Show full text]
  • The Road to Civil Rights Table of Contents
    The Road to Civil Rights Table of Contents Introduction Dred Scott vs. Sandford Underground Railroad Introducing Jim Crow The League of American Wheelmen Marshall “Major” Taylor Plessy v. Ferguson William A. Grant Woodrow Wilson The Black Migration Pullman Porters The International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters The Davis-Bacon Act Adapting Transportation to Jim Crow The 1941 March on Washington World War II – The Alaska Highway World War II – The Red Ball Express The Family Vacation Journey of Reconciliation President Harry S. Truman and Civil Rights South of Freedom Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Too Tired to Move When Rulings Don’t Count Boynton v. Virginia (1960) Freedom Riders Completing the Freedom Ride A Night of Fear Justice in Jackson Waiting for the ICC The ICC Ruling End of a Transition Year Getting to the March on Washington The Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Voting Rights March The Pettus Bridge Across the Bridge The Voting Rights Act of 1965 March Against Fear The Poor People’s Campaign Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Completing the Poor People’s Campaign Bureau of Public Roads – Transition Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Rodney E. Slater – Beyond the Dreams References 1 The Road to Civil Rights By Richard F. Weingroff Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when . you take a cross country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you . then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.
    [Show full text]
  • Plessy V. Ferguson
    Plessy v. Ferguson On June 7, 1892, a 30-year-old colored shoemaker named Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. Plessy was only one-eighths black and seven- eighths white, but under Louisiana law, he was considered black and therefore required to sit in the "Colored" car. Plessy went to court and argued, in Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Louisiana, that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The judge at the trial was John Howard Ferguson, a lawyer from Massachusetts who had previously declared the Separate Car Act "unconstitutional on trains that traveled through several states" . In Plessy's case, however, he decided that the state could choose to regulate railroad companies that operated only within Louisiana. He found Plessy guilty of refusing to leave the white car . Plessy appealed to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, which upheld Ferguson's decision. In 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States heard Plessy's case and found him guilty once again. Speaking for a seven-person majority, Justice Henry Brown wrote: "That [the Separate Car Act] does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery...is too clear for argument...A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races -- a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races, and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color -- has no tendency to destroy the legal
    [Show full text]
  • Articles the Anticanon
    VOLUME 125 DECEMBER 2011 NUMBER 2 © 2011 by The Harvard Law Review Association ARTICLES THE ANTICANON Jamal Greene CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 380 I. DEFINING THE ANTICANON ............................................................................................ 385 II. DEFENDING THE ANTICANON ........................................................................................ 404 A. The Anticanon’s Errors..................................................................................................... 405 1. Dred Scott v. Sandford ............................................................................................... 406 2. Plessy v. Ferguson ...................................................................................................... 412 3. Lochner v. New York ................................................................................................... 417 4. Korematsu v. United States ....................................................................................... 422 B. A Shadow Anticanon ........................................................................................................ 427 III. RECONSTRUCTING THE ANTICANON ............................................................................ 434 A. Historicism ........................................................................................................................ 435 1. Dred Scott ...................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • School Desegregation in Tennessee
    ____________________________ School Desegregation in Tennessee 12 Districts Released from Desegregation Orders 17 Districts Remain Under Court Jurisdiction __________________________________________________________ Tennessee Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights April 2008 This is the work of the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The views expressed in this report and the findings and recommendation contained herein are those of the members of the State Advisory Committee and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission, its individual members, or the policies of the United States Government. The United States Commission on Civil Rights The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency established by Congress in 1957, reconstituted in 1983, and reauthorized in 1994. It is directed to investigate complaints alleging that citizens are being deprived of their right to vote by reason of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or by reason of fraudulent practices; study and collect information relating to discrimination or a denial of equal protection of the laws under the Constitution because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice; appraise federal laws and policies with respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice; serve as a national clearinghouse for information in respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin; submit reports, findings, and recommendations to the President and Congress; and issue public service announcements to discourage discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws.
    [Show full text]
  • Plessy V. Ferguson (1896)
    Street Law Case Summary Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Argued: April 13, 1896 Decided: May 18, 1896 Background The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1868 during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War. It was one of three amendments intended to extend constitutional rights to African Americans. The 13th Amendment officially abolished slavery, the 14th Amendment expanded citizenship rights and due process and equal protection rights for all people, and the 15th Amendment prohibited voting discrimination on the basis of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The 14th Amendment contains several key sections that have played crucial roles in protecting the constitutional rights of all citizens equally: − The Citizenship Clause of 14th Amendment states that all people born in the United States are citizens of both the United States and the state where they live. − The Privileges or Immunities Clause ensures that the states treat citizens of other states equally. − The Due Process Clause says that the state government cannot “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” This means that before depriving a person of life, liberty, or property, the government must provide them with fair treatment in legal proceedings, which may include access to the courts. − The Equal Protection Clause requires states to provide a valid reason or “rational basis” when a law treats one group differently than another. For instance, many states have restrictions for drivers under a certain age because they are inexperienced and statistically more likely to be involved in an accident than older drivers.
    [Show full text]
  • Plessy V. Ferguson (1896) Name:___Date:___
    Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Name:___________ Date:__________ In 1890, Louisiana passed a statute called the Separate Car Act. This law declared that all rail companies carrying passengers in Louisiana had to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and non- white passengers. The penalty for sitting in the wrong compartment was a fine of $25 or 20 days in jail. Two parties wanted to challenge the constitutionality of the Separate Car Act. A group of black citizens who raised money to overturn the law worked together with the East Louisiana Railroad Company, which sought to terminate the Act largely for monetary reasons. They chose a 30-year-old shoemaker named Homer Plessy, a citizen of the United States who was one-eighth black and a resident of the state of Louisiana. On June 7, 1892, Plessy purchased a first-class passage from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana and sat in the railroad car for "White" passengers. The railroad officials knew Plessy was coming and arrested him for violating the Separate Car Act. Well known advocate for black rights Albion Tourgee, a white lawyer, agreed to argue the case for free. Plessy argued in court that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery and the Fourteenth Amendment requires that the government treat people equally. John Howard Ferguson, the judge hearing the case, had stated in a previous court decision that the Separate Car Act was unconstitutional if applied to trains running outside of Louisiana. In this case, however, he declared that the law was constitutional for trains running within the state and found Plessy guilty.
    [Show full text]
  • Plessy V. Ferguson
    DM - Plessy vs Ferguson 7/18/13 1:03 PM Page iii Defining Moments Plessy v. ferguson Laurie Collier Hillstrom 155 W. Congress, Suite 200 Detroit, MI 48226 DM - Plessy vs Ferguson 7/18/13 1:03 PM Page v Table of Contents Preface . .ix How to Use This Book . .xiii Research Topics for Defining Moments: Plessy v. Ferguson . .xv NARRATIVE OVERVIEW Prologue . .3 Chapter One: Reconstruction in the South . .5 Chapter Two: The Rise of Jim Crow . .19 Chapter Three: Homer Plessy Takes a Stand . .33 Chapter Four: Separate but Equal . .47 Chapter Five: Living in Terror . .63 Chapter Six: The Civil Rights Movement . .79 Chapter Seven: The Legacy of Plessy v. Ferguson . .95 BIOGRAPHIES Henry Billings Brown (1836-1913) . .111 Supreme Court Justice Who Wrote the Majority Opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson Rodolphe Desdunes (1849-1928) . .114 Creole Civil Rights Activist Who Challenged Louisiana’s Separate Car Law v DM - Plessy vs Ferguson 7/18/13 1:03 PM Page vi Defining Moments: Plessy v. Ferguson John Howard Ferguson (1838-1915) . .117 Louisiana Judge Who Became the Defendant in Plessy v. Ferguson John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911) . .120 Supreme Court Justice Who Wrote the Famous Plessy v. Ferguson Dissent Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) . .123 Attorney Who Helped Overturn Plessy v. Ferguson and First African-American Supreme Court Justice Louis Martinet (1849-1917) . .127 Black Newspaper Publisher and Civil Rights Advocate Francis Nicholls (1834-1912) . .130 Governor and State Supreme Court Justice of Louisiana Homer Plessy (1862-1925) . .133 New Orleans Resident Who Volunteered to Challenge Segregation in Louisiana Albion W.
    [Show full text]
  • Plessy V. Ferguson ______
    Plessy v. Ferguson _________________________________________________________________ Teacher Introduction: On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, an African American man, bought a first class train ticket from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana. He sat in the white’s only trail car, despite the racial title that was meant to bar him from doing so. The train conductor and a private detective were in place to arrest Plessy when he refused to remove himself to the ‘colored’ car, thus placing him in court for violating the Separate Car Act of 1890 and starting the case that eventually lead to the historic Supreme Court ruling, Plessy v. Ferguson. ​ ​ The Separate Car Act of 1890 was a law passed by the Louisiana State Government that required all passenger railways to have separate train car accommodations for black and white Americans that were equal in facilities. This law was indicative of the general mood of white Americans from the close of Reconstruction until the end of the nineteenth century in regards to African Americans. Without the system of slavery, African Americans were slowly gaining influence in areas of society and began to push against racial norms and for more freedoms. This was unfamiliar and frightening to white Americans, and this fear, especially in the south, prompted a greater desire to separate the races and create more regulation. As a result, Southern African ​ Americans saw the promise of equality under the law embodied through the 13th Amendment, the 14th Amendment and the 15th Amendment to the Constitution receding quickly, and a return to disenfranchisement as white supremacy reasserted itself across the South.
    [Show full text]